Louisianaconstituent state of the United States of America. The state It is delineated from its neighbours—Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, and Texas to the west—by both natural and man-made boundaries. The Gulf of Mexico lies to the south. The 47,752 square miles (123,678 square kilometres) area of Louisiana include includes more than 3,000 square miles (7,770 square km) of inland waters. The capital is Baton Rouge.

Admitted to the Union union in 1812 as the 18th state, Louisiana commands a once strategically vital region where the waters of the great Mississippi–Missouri Mississippi-Missouri river system, draining the continental interior of North America, flow out into the warm, northward-curving crescent of the Gulf of Mexico. It is not surprising that seven flags have flown over its territories since 1682, when the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Lord sieur (lord) de La Salle, placed a wooden cross in the ground and claimed the territory in the name of France’s Louis XIV. The consequent varieties of cultural heritage run like bright threads through many facets of the aspects—socialsocial, political, and artistic—of artistic life in of the state.

With parts of its land lying farther south than any portion of the continental United States except for southern Texas and the Florida peninsula, and with New Orleans, its largest city, lying on roughly the same parallel as Cairo, New Delhi, and Shanghai, Louisiana owes much of its complex personality to its geographic position. The subtropical climate of the state has provided the magnificent , brooding scenery of the coastal bayous, and the lush, dank vegetation of its shores conceals a wealth of oilpetroleum and natural gas. The fertile soil covering much of the terrain made Louisiana a rich agricultural area by 1860, with flourishing sugarcane and cotton plantationsflourishing. A lumbering lumber boom occurred at the turn of the 20th century, and Louisiana underwent rapid industrialization after World War II. Mineral output is great, and the state ranks among the nation’s country’s leaders in petroleum oil and gas production.

But progress has not been without its tragic and turbulent aspects: bitter territorial disputes and violent internal struggles for political power impeded the social and economic development of the state and crippled many of its political institutions. The wealth of the plantations was accumulated through the extensive use of slaves, whose descendants comprise almost nearly one-third of Louisiana’s population and whose culture has contributed much to the social fabric of the state. Racism and racial conflict have marred Racial conflict marked the development of the state from the American Civil War period , through Reconstruction and the ensuing reaction, marked by the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, down to the civil rights conflicts of the 1960s and beyond.

Physical and human geographyThe landRelief

Louisiana shares the general physiographic characteristics common to the Gulf Coast states of the southern United States, with the vital exception of the Mississippi River, which flows through the state and extends its delta far into the Gulf of Mexico. The changing course of this great North American river has created the huge Atchafalaya basin and has dumped tons of sediment along the coast. Despite this, it has been estimated that the beachless coastline of Louisiana is eroding at a rate of about 16 square miles per year because the system of levees, or embankments, constructed by the federal government to keep the Mississippi in a central channel, has left side channels open to erosion.

(1861–65) and Reconstruction (1865–77) through the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s. The guarantee of suffrage (through the Voting Rights Act [1965]) and ever-increasing African American political involvement, however, have helped move the state toward being a more racially egalitarian society.

Since the 1960s the state’s economy, tied closely to the fluctuating oil industry, has experienced slower economic growth and less diversification than many other Southern states. More recently, corruption in state politics and an explosion of crime in the New Orleans area have marred that city’s colourful image. Although the rich cultural heritage of the state is still enjoyed by many, tourism declined precipitously and businesses and residents suffered major losses after Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of the Gulf Coast (including New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana) in August 2005. Area 47,716 square miles (123,584 square km). Pop. (2000) 4,468,976; (2005 est.) 4,523,628.

Land

Relief

Three types of regions are found in Louisiana: lowlands, terraces, and hills. The lowlands consist of the coastal marshes and the Mississippi floodplain, with its natural levees and moderate relief. The Red River valley has a low-elevation relief

but with

, with red soils in its alluvial plain and many raft lakes

,

built

up

by impounding water from

a number of log jams, and red soils in association with its alluvial plain

logjams. The terraces include much of the so-called Florida Parishes

above and

to the north and northeast of the Mississippi

and

delta, as well as the prairies of southwestern Louisiana.

Upland hills are on either side of

Hills flank the Red River valley and

in

lend contour to the northern portion of the Florida Parishes; the state’s highest

Louisiana shares the general physiographic characteristics common to the Gulf Coast states of the southern United States,

is 535 feet (163 metres) above sea level.

with the vital exception of the Mississippi River, which borders and then flows through the state and extends its delta far into the Gulf of Mexico. The changing course of this great North American river has created the huge Atchafalaya River basin and has dumped tons of sediment along the coast. Despite this, the beachless coast of Louisiana is eroding; at the end of the 20th century, land was vanishing at a rate of about 24 square miles (62 square km) per year. This loss has been caused in part by the system of levees (or embankments) constructed by the federal government to keep the Mississippi in a central channel, which left side channels open to erosion. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina eroded an additional 73 square miles (189 square km) of the Louisiana coastland.

Soils

The soils of Louisiana have been one of the state’s priceless resources;

nearly

more than one-

third

fourth of the total land area is covered by the rich alluvium deposited by the overflowing of its rivers and bayous. Muck and peat soils are found within the coastal marshes, while the bottoms hold rich alluvial soils: the lighter and coarser bottom soils of the Mississippi and Red

river

River valleys and the older alluvium and loessial, or windblown, soils. Within the uplands, or hills, there are more-mature soils that are less fertile.

Climate

Louisiana’s climate is subtropical, a natural result of its location on the Gulf of Mexico. As it also lies at the mouth of the vast

Mississippi–Missouri

Mississippi-Missouri river valley, roughly halfway between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, the state is also affected by continental weather patterns. Hot, humid summers, tempered by frequent afternoon thunder showers, alternate with mild winters. Louisiana is subject to tropical storms, and the hurricane season extends for six months, from June through November. Average annual temperatures range from

64° F (18° C

64 °F (18 °C) in the extreme north of the state to

71° F (21° C

71 °F (21 °C) at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The highest monthly average is

82° F (28° C

82 °F (28 °C) in July, and the lowest is

50° F (10° C

50 °F (10 °C) in January.

Summer averages do not extend above the low 80s F, and

In summer it is the humidity, rather than the heat, that is one of the more marked characteristics of the state’s subtropical climate. The frost season

begins

falls roughly between November 1 in northern Louisiana and December 14 in the extreme southeast. The average growing season ranges from 220 to 320 days and the average precipitation ranges from almost 45 inches (1,

143 millimetres

140 mm) at Shreveport to more than 56 inches (1,420 mm) at New Orleans.

Plant and animal life

Natural vegetation in Louisiana is found in three major divisions: the first consists of forest, upland pines and hardwoods, bottomland hardwoods, and bald cypress; the second consists of prairie, or dry grassland; and the third consists of marshland, or wet grassland. In the southern half of the state, along a zone running westward from Baton Rouge,

the

live

oak

oaks with

its

their characteristic drapings of Spanish moss

predominates

predominate. The magnolia, whose blossom is the state flower, grows throughout the state.

Muskrats and other fur-bearing rodents, together with alligators, have been trapped in the marshes of southern Louisiana. There is a great variety of birds, native and migrant, but the once-frequent brown pelican (the state bird)

and the wild turkey are endangered

has become an endangered species. The gray squirrel, deer, and dove are plentiful. Fish, shrimp, crayfish,

crab

crabs, and

oyster

oysters are a source of food and

of

income in the coastal and swamp areas.

People

Population composition

As a diversity of landscapes and forms of settlement characterizes the state, its peoples and its cultures also represent many Louisianas. The earliest European settlers were French or Spanish; only later did “les Américains” settle in the northern part of the state and in the Florida Parishes. Each area of settlement preserved a cultural heritage strongly marked by adherence to either Roman Catholic or Protestant faith. The Louisiana French, particularly the descendants of the Acadians (most of whom were French settlers deported by the British from Canada in the 1700s), came to dominate much of southern Louisiana; many of those who arrived to live among them have been assimilated to the local Cajun (etymologically derived from Acadian) way of life. The Cajun French dialect is spoken in many parishes, and throughout southern Louisiana one may hear English spoken with a French accent. In addition, there are a number of cultural islands in both the northern and southern regions of the state. These are made up of Italian, Spanish (Isleños), Hungarian, German, and Dalmatian-Slavonian communities. There are also ethnically mixed settlements.

From the earliest days of the state, African Americans have played an important role. Prior to the mid-20th century, the African American population was concentrated in the areas surrounding the plantations that were sustained by their labour. In contemporary Louisiana, the greater portion of the African American community has chosen to pursue nonagricultural work in urban and suburban areas. Although Louisiana’s African American population has been denied many of the traditional avenues leading to social and economic power, their culture has nevertheless contributed immensely to the life and character of the state and of New Orleans.

Louisiana’s patterns of historical settlements have generated not only a unique Cajun culture but also an ethnically and linguistically distinct Creole culture of mixed French, African American, and Native American heritage. Based on—but distinct from—the French language, the Louisiana Creole language is itself a reflection of the diverse heritage of its speakers. Later migration to and through New Orleans from Europe, Latin America, and Cuba further enriched the state’s ethnic diversity, which has always been greater than that of other states of the Deep South.

Settlement patterns

Northern Louisiana forms a natural region including the northeastern Louisiana

Delta

delta, the Red River valley, and the northern Louisiana hills. Southern Louisiana, composed of the parish of Avoyelles and all the parishes that lie

beneath the 31st parallel

south of latitude 31° N, has three major subregions: (1) the Florida Parishes in the east, (2) southwestern Louisiana, which contains many Anglo-Saxon Protestants but also has an important French minority, and (3) a region in between,

a region

variously known as

the

Cajun country,

or

the river and bayou country, or the sugar bowl.

The earliest settlements in the river and bayou parishes were “line” villages, where farmsteads were each built at the riverfront of a long and narrow lot, with the stream serving as a highway. The line village pattern contrasted with the irregular pattern stemming from the ancient land-division system of metes and bounds used by the Anglo-Saxons of the Florida Parishes. Where the natural levee was wide enough, plantations were established. Before the Civil War, people came to the uplands of northern Louisiana from the

Eastern

eastern states and settled in isolated farmsteads among the pine woods. Southwestern Louisiana was developed after 1880, and its prairies were converted into rice fields. Settlement there resembled a grid system of land division found throughout the interior of the United States.

The people

If a diversity of landscapes and forms of settlement characterizes the state, its peoples and its cultures also represent many Louisianas. The earliest European settlers were French or Spanish, and only later were the Florida Parishes and the northern part of the state settled by les Américains. Each area of settlement preserved a cultural heritage strongly marked by adherence to either the Roman Catholic or Protestant faith. The Louisiana French, particularly the descendants of the Acadians, came to dominate much of southern Louisiana; many of those who have arrived to live among them have been assimilated to the Cajun way of life. French is spoken in many parishes, and throughout southern Louisiana one may hear English spoken with a French accent. In addition, there are several cultural islands in both regions of the state. These are made up of Italian, Spanish (Isleños), Hungarian, German, and Dalmatian-Slavonian communities. There are also several racially mixed settlements.

The peoples of Louisiana exhibit a greater variety than those in other Deep South states not only because of the patterns of historical settlement but also because of the migration to and through New Orleans from Europe, Latin America, and CubaBy the early 21st century southern Louisiana contained nearly three-fourths of the state’s population. A predominantly urban population was achieved for the first time in 1950. Since then the vast majority of Louisianans have been urban dwellers, mostly in the Greater New Orleans area and Baton Rouge, the seat of state government and the centre of the chemical industry. Other urban concentrations are located in Lafayette in the south-central part of the state and at Shreveport in the northwest. Much of northern and western Louisiana is sparsely populated.

Demographic trends

Louisiana has experienced some significant demographic changes in the 20th century. Prior to World War II many African Americans migrated to other states; after the war much of the remaining African American population left Louisiana’s rural farmlands for its urban areas. African Americans now constitute nearly one-third of the state’s residents. Whites (i.e., those of European ancestry) account for nearly two-thirds of the state’s population. A fraction of the populace is Hispanic, and an even smaller segment is of Asian or Pacific Islander descent. The number of foreign-born residents of Louisiana , however, has declined; now declined over the 20th century, leaving some four-fifths of the population is composed of native-born LouisianiansLouisianans. The vast majority of foreign-born residents are found live within the urbanized parishes of the state, especially in New Orleans.

From the earliest days of the state, blacks have played an important role; and in the late 20th century they still constituted almost a third of the population. Historically, the black population was concentrated in areas containing the plantations sustained by their labour. During the early 20th century a large out-migration occurred, supplemented after World War II by a black migration to the state’s urban areas. Although Louisiana’s black population has been denied many of the traditional avenues leading to social and economic power, their culture has nevertheless contributed to the life and character of the state and of New Orleans, Louisiana’s major city.

Southern Louisiana contains about three-fourths of the state’s population, and almost one-third of the people in Louisiana live in the three most populated parishes. A predominantly urban population was achieved for the first time in 1950.

The economyLouisiana has shared the economic underdevelopment afflicting Southern states. Prior to 1941 nearly one-third of the labour force was employed in the primary industries, based on raw materials, while only one-fifth worked in the secondary sectors of mining, building, and manufacturing. Such an imbalance depressed personal income per capita, which, until 1930, was but slightly more than half of the national figure

Economy

Louisiana’s economy was based mainly on agriculture in the 1700s and 1800s, with cotton as the primary crop in the northern part of the state and sugarcane the principal crop in the south. Lumbering began to grow in the late 1800s and remained a major part of the state’s economy into the 21st century.

World War II hastened the industrial growth of Louisiana to the extent that the numbers of the labour force engaged in manufacturing increased considerably.

The most important development has been the establishment of a chemical industry

Petroleum and natural gas extraction also grew rapidly. Chemical production, based on the

oil

state’s readily available hydrocarbons, sulfur, salt, and water

that are found in the area. An investment boom occurred from 1947 to 1957

resources, boomed between 1947 and 1957, when the first big move to offshore petroleum production was made. Later in the 20th century, expansion of service opportunities—especially in tourism, retail, and government—helped position the service sector as the state’s top employer. Despite these developments, Louisiana’s economic growth has been slower than that of most other states and has trailed well behind the national average.

Agriculture and forestry

Agriculture is much less important to Louisiana’s economy than it was earlier in the state’s history. Only a small fraction of residents earn their living on farms, and most of the production comes from relatively few large farms in the alluvial plains of the Mississippi River. Cotton, sugarcane, rice, soybeans, corn (maize) and feed grains, and sweet potatoes are the main agricultural crops produced in the state. Poultry and eggs, beef cattle, and dairy products are also important. Tree farming, catalyzed by conservation efforts, is now the most valuable agricultural activity. Louisiana is among the top timber producers in the country. The vast majority of the state’s trees are softwoods (pines), harvested primarily for making wood pulp and plywood.

Resources and power

Petroleum resources are found in

all areas

the southern and northwestern parts of the state

, but

; the main oil fields have been developed between Shreveport and Monroe

natural gas. The petroleum industry was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, but by late 2006 it had nearly regained pre-hurricane production. Offshore drilling for natural gas also declined but rebounded quickly.

Oil in Louisiana is often found in association with

the more than 100 known

numerous salt domes

,

(blisterlike intrusions in the bedrock), and sulfur lies in the caprock overlying the salt.

Louisiana leads the nation

The state is a national leader in the production of salt and is

one of the major sulfur-producing states. The natural gas resources of the state have been an important source of industrial power, and the abundant mineral fuels that are available have been used to develop electrical power. Conservation efforts have capitalized on the resources of soil and climate, and there is, as a result, extensive “tree farming.” Louisiana also has a prime asset in its water resources.

Pipelines are used to carry crude oil to refineries or natural gas to provide energy for homes and industries in state and distant markets. Many miles of electric power lines crisscross the state.

Industry and agriculture

Chemical products, petroleum, and transportation equipment are the leading manufactured items. Cotton is no longer king in the agricultural domain: it was first in cash farm receipts in 1960, but within 20 years soybeans had become the leading agricultural product, with beef cattle ranked second. Other farm products include rice, sugarcane, dairy products, and poultry and eggs. The state has become much less dependent upon farming.

also a major source of sulfur, sand, gravel, and clay.

Natural gas has long been the primary source of Louisiana’s electricity, generating about half of the state’s total supply. Coal-fired plants provide another one-fourth of Louisiana’s energy. A smaller but nonetheless significant portion of energy comes from the state’s nuclear power stations.

Manufacturing

Chemical, petroleum, and coal products are Louisiana’s leading manufactures, and manufacturing accounts for roughly one-sixth of the gross domestic product. The chemical industry provides about one-third of all of the industrial activity in the state. The extraction and processing of petroleum and natural gas became the state’s largest industrial activity in the 20th century, with much of the petroleum being converted to chemicals. The chemical industry is concentrated along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Lumber and wood products, transportation equipment and metal products, and processed food are other important manufactured items.

Transportation

Louisiana’s waterways have always been an important means of transportation. The state’s

4,800–7,500 miles (7,680–12,000 kilometres)

vast system of navigable waterways include the Intracoastal Waterway. It is Louisiana’s only

east–west

east-west waterway and canal system and runs some 310 miles (500 km) from Mississippi Sound to the Sabine River. It is part of a larger waterway extending from the Caloosahatchee River in Florida to Brownsville, Texas. The port of New Orleans

is ranked second

ranks among the busiest in the

nation

country in volume of seaborne freight, while Baton Rouge, farther up the Mississippi River at the head of deep-channel navigation, is important for shipping of petroleum and chemical products, including aluminum

,

and grain.

Railroads became common after the 1830s, initially as feeders to the steamboat traffic

, with

; the Clinton and Port Hudson line

being

was the first railroad in the state. Railroading reached its peak in the early 20th century in connection with a feverish

lumbering

lumber boom, and there are nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of track still in use in Louisiana. The state also has several thousand miles of highway.

Louisiana has some 180 airports, and

There are dozens of airports in Louisiana, though only a handful offer commercial flights. New Orleans International Airport, a leading continental link, is a major point of connection with Latin America.

Administration and social conditionsGovernmentA state

Government and society

Constitutional framework

Louisiana’s current constitution, its 11th, was adopted in 1974; it requires a two-thirds majority of each house of the state legislature, and then a majority of the electorate, to amend it. Louisiana has had more constitutions than any other state in the country. The constitution that was adopted in 1921 was Louisiana’s 10th in 108 years. It remained in force for more than 50 years, a period during which the state underwent more fundamental change than had occurred in all the preceding

109

years of statehood.

The

earliest document (1812) secured the political power of the planters and business classes and gave great appointive powers to the

governor

; the antebellum documents

of

1845 and 1852 extended the suffrage and made every government office elective. Representation, based on population, continued legislative domination by the planter masters. The constitution of 1861, which substituted the phrase “Confederate States” for “United States,” and its successors of 1864 and 1868, the latter extending the suffrage to all males, black as well as white, may be called the Civil War documents. The constitution of 1879, marking the end of the Reconstruction period, restricted the action of the legislature and granted executive powers rivaling those of 1812, while the constitution of 1898 effectively disfranchised the black citizens of the state. The constitutions of 1913 and 1921 were written by delegates of conventions called to grapple with the problems of the 20th century: in many respects they failed, primarily because of the shadows of the past that hung over them. A new state constitution was established in 1974.The governor of

Louisiana remains the state’s most powerful official, not only from the weight of tradition (and personal performance) but also because of the extent of patronage among the many executive agencies, boards, commissions, and offices filled by gubernatorial appointment. The governor is elected

for

to a term of four years and is permitted to serve no more than two consecutive terms.

Several additional state officials are elected; others are appointed

The lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and superintendent of education are also elected to four-year terms, as are the agriculture, insurance, and elections commissioners. The Louisiana legislature has two houses: the Senate, with 39 members, and the House of Representatives, with 105 members. Legislators in both chambers are elected

for

to four-year terms. The 1974 constitution retained a 1956 amendment that requires a two-thirds vote by both houses on taxation measures in order to curb spending

money

by the governor.

Local self-government in Louisiana followed the Virginia system of county government. The parish (county), the municipality, and the special district are the units of local government. There are 64 parishes, with land areas that vary from

the 199

roughly 180 square miles (466 square km) in Orleans parish

to the

near the city of New Orleans to more than 1,

441

300 square miles (3,370 square km) in Cameron parish in the state’s southwestern corner. The name of the elected parish governing board,

“the police

the “police jury,” is not found anywhere else in the country.

There are about 300 incorporated municipalities in Louisiana, described as state units, which exercise narrowly construed powers. The charter of incorporation detailed by law outlines three classes of municipalities based

upon

on population: city (5,000 or more)

;

, town (1,

000–4

001 to 4,999)

;

, and village (

150–999

1,000 or less). Special districts established by the legislature provide for the administration of new or expanding functions of local government.

A 1975 statute mandated an open primary system for the election of state officers. Under this system, all candidates appear on a single ballot. The candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the votes in the primary is elected to office. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a runoff election is held between the two candidates who received the most votes; these candidates may be members of the same political party. Previously, Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory in the general election. In the open primary, however, the division of the Democratic vote by multiple candidates practically assured a runoff position for a lone Republican candidate. In consequence, Louisiana in 1979 elected its first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

The highest court in the state is the Supreme Court. Its seven justices are popularly elected for 10-year terms. Judges in the Court of Appeals, the district courts, and most of the lesser courts are also popularly elected.

Louisiana’s legal system differs from that of the other 49 states in that it is based not on common law but on civil law, which is code, or written, law. The state draws

upon

on its colonial inheritance,

whereby

in which the adopted code was based

upon

on the Napoleonic Code

Napoléon

of France and further influenced by Spanish laws, both of which had a common source in Roman law. The civil law consists of broad principles drafted by authorities in various fields of law. In Louisiana the law is enacted in the constitution, which vests in the legislature the authority to make law, whereas the functions of the courts are limited to the application of the law to given sets of facts. Courts are not bound by previous decisions. The law governs all personal and property rights and has been extended to civil and criminal procedures.

Education

The constitution of 1974 revamped administration of education by establishing five boards: (1) a state board of regents to oversee higher education, (2) three separate management boards for Louisiana State University, Southern University, and the other state colleges and universities, and (3) a policy board for elementary and secondary education. Public elementary and secondary education were, beginning in 1988, administered by an appointed superintendent.

Louisiana State University, which is both the land-grant and the arts and sciences university, is the keystone of higher education in the state, with campuses in Baton Rouge, Eunice, Shreveport, and Alexandria. Its former campus in New Orleans has become the University of New Orleans. Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston, and the University of Southwestern Louisiana, in Lafayette, are among the state’s other universities, many of which grew from junior colleges in the 1930s and ’40s. Southern University, in Baton Rouge, with campuses is Shreveport and New Orleans, is a large public black university, as is Grambling State University, in Grambling. Tulane University, in New Orleans, has long excelled as a private institution. The Roman Catholic schools Loyola and Xavier and the private black school Dillard are all in New Orleans.

Health and welfare

The legislature has established programs to provide a system of economic security and social welfare for various categories of citizens

, including persons 65 years of age and over

. The state gives aid and welfare to mothers and children and provides aid to

the disabled and to the needy blind

people with disabilities. Various state departments provide some aspects of welfare aid, but by far the most important is the Department of

Health and Human Resources. The department

Social Services, which provides services to Louisiana citizens through a central office in New Orleans and local units in parishes. Penal and correctional institutions operated by the state are administered under the general authority of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. The penal system has often

suffered from

been subject to an excess of political interference.

The so-called Charity Hospital system, supported and administered by the state, is fairly unusual among the 50 states. The system maintains several general

hospitals, as well as hospitals for the mentally ill

and psychiatric hospitals. The Charity Hospital of Louisiana, in New Orleans

received some public support after its founding in 1811 but has long since been funded by the state.Cultural life

The extensive power of the Roman Catholic church in southern Louisiana and the domination of , founded by private endowment in 1736 and later adopted by the state, is one of the country’s oldest public hospitals.

Education

Louisiana has nearly two dozen public and about 10 private institutions of higher education. Louisiana State University (LSU; 1853), which is both the land-grant and the arts and sciences university, is the keystone of the state system of higher education, with campuses in Baton Rouge, Eunice, Shreveport, and Alexandria. Its former campus, in New Orleans, has become the University of New Orleans (1856). Louisiana Tech University (1894), in Ruston, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe (1931; university status, 1970) are among the other public universities, many of which grew from junior colleges in the 1930s and ’40s. Southern University (1880), in Baton Rouge, with campuses also in Shreveport and New Orleans, is a public historically black institution, as is Grambling State University (1901), in Grambling. Private historically black schools include Dillard (1930) and Xavier (1915; Roman Catholic), both in New Orleans. Among other prominent private institutions in the city are Loyola University (1837; Catholic) and Tulane University (1834). A number of public and private institutions offer online degree programs.

Cultural life

Christian churches are important influences on Louisiana’s cultural life, especially the Roman Catholic Church in southern Louisiana and the Baptists in northern Louisiana and among

the black population remain important influences on social and cultural life

African Americans throughout the state. New Orleans and many smaller communities have been able to support the arts and philanthropic institutions. The Creoles

(descendants of French or Spanish settlers)

developed a distinctive architecture, art, and cuisine centred on New Orleans.

Planters emulated the Creoles, and, thus, the people of the alluvial parishes of northern Louisiana are more cosmopolitan in outlook than are the people of the uplands.In folk

In rural culture and the arts, Louisiana more than holds its own. This is especially evident in the realm of music, whether it be

in black folk songs,

African American song (including the celebrated rural blues

; the

), Cajun

bands

fiddling at the fais do-

dodos,

dos (country dances held in southern Louisiana

; the

), the Creole zydeco tradition, or the community hymn

singings

singing of northern Louisiana

; the

. The urban jazz style that was taken by New Orleans migrants

took

to Chicago and elsewhere

; or the renaissance in

, as well as the Dixieland music played by bands at

New Orleans’

Preservation Hall

.New Orleans supports an opera company and a symphony orchestra. It was a major cultural centre during the 19th century. Its French Quarter

in New Orleans, are also hallmarks of Louisiana’s cultural heritage.

Louisiana has produced a number of important literary figures, including Truman Capote and Ernest J. Gaines. Many of Capote’s earlier works were set in the South, while the bulk of Gaines’s novels were cast specifically in Louisiana. Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) was highly acclaimed for its depiction of rural life in Louisiana from an African American perspective.

Since the early 19th century, New Orleans has been a major cultural centre of the United States. Its French Quarter has attracted such artists as John J. Audubon, the great wildlife painter, and George Catlin, noted for his portrayals of the American West,

together with

and has been the haunt of writers such as Walt Whitman, Sherwood Anderson, and William Faulkner.

Since the 1930s other

The city has also been home to an opera company, as well as various symphony orchestras since the mid-20th century. Other cities, notably Shreveport, Monroe, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette, have

evolved

established their own museums and galleries, orchestras, choruses,

and little theatres

theatres, and other cultural institutions, especially since the 1930s.

Tourism has developed as an important

industry

component of the state’s economy, using the appeal of the antebellum past and the attraction of Creole

cuisine, a

cuisine—a blend of French, Spanish,

black

African American, and

Indian

Native American dishes. A series of parades and balls culminating in Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) has become a national attraction in New Orleans. There are many public parks and gardens, and the state is advertised as a sportsman’s paradise for hunting and fishing.

New Orleans is an important centre for both professional and collegiate sports. Tulane usually fields strong collegiate gridiron football teams, and the city is also home to the National Football League (NFL) Saints team. The Super Bowl NFL championship game has been played on multiple occasions in New Orleans, and the Sugar Bowl of collegiate football is held there annually (generally early in January). New Orleans also has a professional men’s basketball team (the Hornets). In Baton Rouge, LSU has long been a powerhouse in both collegiate football and basketball. The state’s larger cities also host a number of minor league football, baseball, and ice hockey teams.

The literate Creole culture provided the state with a long press tradition

,

; the first newspaper, Le Moniteur de la Louisiane,

appearing

appeared in 1794. Eight others were published in New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, and the rural parishes likewise published their own papers. The

leading newspapers are concentrated in the urban parishes.HistoryEarly settlementAt least 16,000

New Orleans Times-Picayune, one of the state’s oldest newspapers, has the largest circulation in Louisiana. There are about 20 other dailies published in the state. Louisiana is well served by numerous radio stations and nearly three dozen television stations.

History

Early settlement

Thousands of years before European exploration, Indians various indigenous peoples occupied the region that was to become later became Louisiana. At least seven There are prehistoric Indian archaeological siteshave been excavated, most notably the so-called of the Woodland culture at Poverty Point sites (approximately 700 BC(designated both a state historic site and a national monument) and the Mississippian culture at Marksville site (AD 100 to 550(also a state historic site). Most Louisiana Indians peoples lived in hunting and gathering camps in the uplands and coastal prairies, though there were farming villages in the rich , low-lying areas known as bottoms. It is estimated that there were the native population was about 15,000 Indians in the area when settlement by Europeans began during the 1700s. By 1980 only about one-fifth as many Indians Native Americans remained. Their The heritage of Louisiana’s original inhabitants is present in the many Native American place-names that lend colour to the state’s map.

While the Spanish were the first Europeans to discover the area, The first European known to have explored present-day Louisiana was the Spaniard Hernando de Soto in 1541, but it was the French who later colonized itthe region. Serious colonization by France began in 1702, when Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville explored the area and struggled to found permanent coloniessettlements. The city of New Orleans was established by Bienville in 1718. Royal charters covering the area had been granted, first to French merchant Antoine Crozat , in 1712 , and then , in 1717 , to the Scottish businessman John Law, whose Company of the West failed in 1720. When Louisiana became a French crown colony in 1731, its population had grown from fewer than 1,000 to nearly 8,000, including slaves. In addition to the French settlers, many thousands of Germans arrived, settling on the river just above New Orleans on what became known as the German Coast. Colonization was increased again during the 1760s with the arrival of the French-speaking Acadians, who had been expelled from Nova Scotia by the British.

In 1762 Louisiana and New Orleans were ceded to Spain by a secret treaty that was to establish nearly four decades of Spanish rule and influence in the area. In 1779 the Spanish wrested Baton Rouge from the British and took all of West Florida, which then extended from the peninsula westward across the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi River. In 1800 the Spanish re-ceded returned Louisiana to France, and in 1803 three years later the United Statesconcluded the Louisiana Purchase, under the leadership of Pres. Thomas Jefferson, bought Louisiana from the French emperor Napoleon I. The Louisiana Purchase, a vast acquisition of land for the country, included New Orleans and much of present-day Louisiana state, as well as most of the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

The 19th century

Louisiana was subsequently divided into the Territory of Orleans, which consisted essentially of the state within its present boundaries, and the Territory of Louisiana, which included all the vast area drained by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1810 the Territory of Orleans consisted of 77,000 people, and statehood proposals were beginning to be heard. When , in 1812 , the territory petitioned to enter the Unionunion, the eastern region , now called the Florida Parishes—where the people had rebelled against the Spanish and established the Republic of West Florida—was included.

There was an economic boom during the 1830s, generated by slave labour toiling on the flourishing sugarcane and cotton plantations, and sets of natural cleavages emerged in the political affairs of the state as French–American, and later planter–farmer, interests clashed in the political process. While the yeoman farmer held the suffrage, representation rested in the hands of a plantation aristocracy that overcame one-man, one-vote principles by counting slaves in the determination of district units. Under this circumstance, and with the breakdown of the two-party system during the 1850s, sentiment in the state was divided on the issue of secession from the Union. The pro-secession group prevailed in the convention of 1861, even though later research would make it appear that a majority of the citizens wanted to stay in the Union.

Separation was short-lived in southern Louisiana, for On April 30, 1812, Louisiana entered the union as the 18th state. Between December 1814 and January 1815, New Orleans was the site of the final battle of the War of 1812, in which U.S. troops led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British.

After the war, settlers from the east rushed to New Orleans and other areas of the young state. New Orleans also became home to thousands of newly arrived immigrants from the West Indies, Germany, and Ireland. As the upper reaches of the Mississippi valley became more populated in the first half of the 19th century, New Orleans grew and prospered as the main trading centre of the western United States. Large amounts of grain, cotton, and meat came to New Orleans via steamboats on the rivers, and the city’s merchants sold upriver a wide variety of goods that they imported into the city.

An agricultural boom took place, and cotton and sugarcane production expanded. Both crops were cultivated primarily by slaves of African descent, and a wealthy plantation society emerged. Small farmers’ opposition to planters was apparent in Louisiana state politics, especially after settlement expanded in the hilly northwestern part of the state. Overall, the planters generally prevailed. Many Louisianans were uncertain about secession in 1860, but the state did join the Confederate States of America in 1861 as one of the original seven states in that union.

Southern Louisiana’s separation from the Union was short-lived, and by May 1, 1862, New Orleans was occupied by Union army forces . Following the end of the war, Louisiana was readmitted into the Union in 1868, and a severe Reconstruction period beganunder Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. The general, intolerant of the lack of cooperation that he received from some Louisianans in the occupied state, had at least one dissident hanged, his intention being to make local residents see clearly the costs of war. Soon Pres. Abraham Lincoln was encouraging the creation of a pro-U.S. state government in Louisiana so that it could reenter the union. Among the controversial issues was whether to give the state’s African Americans the right to vote as part of a reconstructed Louisiana, a decision that Lincoln ultimately approved. Despite much debate and controversy, however, the state failed to rejoin the union until after the war ended. Wartime Louisiana foreshadowed the problems of emancipation and Reconstruction that awaited the rest of the South in the postwar period. In the years immediately following the war, ex-Confederates won control of the state government and instituted policies that severely limited the rights of newly freed slaves. However, with the official advent of Reconstruction in 1867, which brought U.S. control over state political matters, a new constitution was written that protected the political rights of African Americans. Louisiana was finally readmitted into the union in 1868.

Political conflict occurred between the federal Republicans who were located centred in New Orleans and the former Confederates from the rural parishes. After 1876 the Democrats contested with the Republicans as the freed black citizen, whose vote represented the balance of power in the state, became the pawn in the electoral struggle. A number of clashes occurred between the factions, the most noted of which was Sept. 14, 1874, in New Orleans, when the White League briefly wrested control of the city from the Republican police. In 1876 the Democrats claimed that General Francis T. Nicholls was elected governor, but the Republicans claimed that S.B. Packard had won. Their claims were intertwined with the choice of presidential electors for that year in the famous Hayes–Tilden dispute. The Republicans manipulated the state returning board and sent two sets of election returns to Congress, and the Democrats sent their returns. The electoral commission accepted the Republican electors, just as it did those in dispute from South Carolina, Florida, and Oregon. Both Nicholls and Packard took the oath as governor in January 1877 and set up rival governments, which continued until President Rutherford B. Hayes, elected as a part of a bargain, ordered the withdrawal of federal troops from the capital on April 20, 1877, and the white Democratic Party was left in control.The plantation economy continued as the farmer class, white and black alike, was squeezed from farm ownership and Although they would soon dominate the Democratic Party, during the time between 1868 and 1876 the former Confederates relied heavily on extralegal terrorism that was organized by such groups as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the White Camellia, and the White League—all of which worked to create mayhem for the Republicans. They frequently murdered Republican candidates and officeholders. The U.S. army was the only force that was able to counter such terrorism. When the army was finally withdrawn from Louisiana in 1877 as part of a bargain to settle the contested presidential election of 1876, the anti-black, anti-Republican Louisianans secured their power in state politics. A new constitution was enacted in 1898 that disenfranchised nearly all African Americans, and a system of legalized discrimination, in the form of segregation, ensued shortly thereafter.

The plantation economy was re-created after the Civil War, but many small farmers, white and black alike, were unable either to buy land or to hold onto what they originally owned and were thus forced into sharecropping or tenancy. Agrarian protests that emerged during the 1880s and ’90s produced the People’s (Populist) Party and what seemed at the time to be a chance to overthrow the state’s planter–merchant–lawyer planter-merchant-lawyer rule. By the early 20th century, however, Louisiana was under a restrictive rule, as the elite was were able to defeat the reform movement of the farmers in the gubernatorial election of 1896 and to enact the constitution of 1898. As a result, nearly all blacks were legally denied the right to exercise the franchise, while many of Louisiana’s whites lost the will to do so.

The 20th century

and solidify conservative rule in Louisiana.

Louisiana since c. 1900

Louisiana’s economy began to diversify significantly in the late 1800s with the emergence of a large timber industry, which continued as a major part of the state’s economy into the 21st century. Extensive lumbering attracted large corporations to Louisiana for three decades following 1890, and the discovery of oil and gas reserves helped to increase industrial development. While these trends may have laid the foundations for the eventual development of the Louisiana economy, the The conservative political leadership of the state was not ready to take advantage of these developments in terms of increased tax revenues and services to the people. Louisiana, therefore, continued to be a backward, segregated, and primarily agrarian society.Part of the rise of the demagogic and populist Huey P. Long to the governorship during the late 1920s may well be attributed to the seriously arrested socioeconomic development of the staterefused to tax the extractive industries heavily, however, and the controversy that ensued helped propel the rise of the left-wing demagogue Huey Long, who was elected governor and then senator beginning in the late 1920s. Through a ruthless political machine that he tightly controlled, Long dominated virtually every public decision made at the state level until his assassination in 1935.

With the support of the rural areas and the emerging working class, Long substituted a realism for the romance perpetuated by the conservative leadership. Under his administration Long’s administration raised welfare benefits and educational services were extended, and built many new bridges, roads, and hospitalswere constructed, not on the pay-as-you-go basis of the past but through the floating of bonded indebtedness. Since the rise of Longism and its perpetuation under Huey’s . Long’s political allies and his brother, Earl K. Long (elected governor in 1948 and 1956), no political administration has seen fit to turn back the series perpetuated his liberal spending policies, and his legacy of public benefits financed by increased taxation has continued to some extent to the present day.

During and after World War II, Louisiana experienced further significant new economic development, which was heavily committed to concentrated in the petrochemical industry and increasingly concerned with offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Since the 1960s a “second Reconstruction” brought about by U.S. Supreme Court decisions on school desegregation and voting rights for blacks has had important consequences. Conflict, focused on race and religion, broke the bridge the Longs had built between northern and southern Louisiana.

Governor John J. McKeithen, who took office in 1964, stayed the furor over racial integration by building a firm consensus on “law and order.” He was reelected in 1968 after successfully sponsoring a “second-term” constitutional amendment. Governor Edwin W. Edwards (elected 1972, reelected 1976) reaped benefit from an improved social atmosphere and expanding economic conditions in what was then called “oil-rich Louisiana.” Unable to seek a third consecutive term in 1980, Edwards won an unprecedented third election in 1984, following the administration of Republican David Treen. A combination of southern Louisiana Cajun and black electoral power set the pattern.

Louisiana’s progress in meeting the challenge of building a racially integrated society is evidenced by the fact that the ratio of blacks to whites among registered voters is nearly equivalent to that in the population as a whole. The potential to extend rights and opportunities is in place. The relative underdevelopment of the state, however, continued to be apparent in questions of political corruption and in the economic depression created by the world oil glut, as the state government had become heavily dependent on oil severance taxes.

The growth of the petrochemical industry raised the overall prosperity of the state after 1940 and contributed heavily to a significant increase in personal income among state residents. In the 1930s and ’40s, African Americans in Louisiana, led by a well-educated middle-class group of New Orleaners, began to challenge the entrenched system of segregation, mainly by arguing against discrimination in the courts. Black Louisianans rose up against segregation more forcefully in the 1960s as part of the nationwide civil rights movement.

Louisiana’s politics, although more open since the 1960s, have hardly lost their colourful, controversial character. The Republican Party has become more competitive in state politics, as evidenced by the election of Republican governors and members of Congress and the state legislature. One Republican, David Duke—an avowed white supremacist and former head of the KKK—was elected to a term (1989–93) in the Louisiana House of Representatives and has run for other state and federal offices. Edwin W. Edwards, a flamboyant Democrat who was elected governor four times between 1972 and 1992, enacted liberal policies but was often accused of public corruption; although acquitted of charges in the 1980s, he was convicted in 2000 of racketeering, fraud, and extortion.

Since the 1970s Louisiana’s economy has often sputtered, a reflection of its overdependence on the oil industry, which has tended to tie the state to boom-and-bust cycles. The state also failed to diversify into other industrial activities as fast as some other Southern states, and its service sector has lacked the dynamism of various neighbouring states on the Gulf Coast. The damage and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 severely affected the state’s economy and infrastructure—notably in southern Louisiana—although oil and gas extraction did rebound relatively quickly. After the disaster, the state began to rebuild and repair the affected areas with support from the federal government and a plethora of local and national organizations. Louisiana also introduced incentives to revitalize tourism, notably in the New Orleans area.

Books on the state’s geography include Fred B. Kniffen and Sam Bowers Hilliard, Louisiana: Its Land and People, rev. ed. (1988), a concise cultural geography with maps and illustrations; and Louisiana Writers’ Project, Louisiana: A Guide to the State (1941, reprinted 1976), also available in a new rev. revised edition ed. edited by Harry Hansen (1971), an indispensable survey of life in Louisiana. DeLorme Mapping Company, Louisiana Atlas & Gazetteer (19982003), focuses on topography; while Charles Robert Goins and John Michael Caldwell, Historical Atlas of Louisiana (1995), concentrates on historical geography. Glenn R. Conrad (ed.), The Cajuns, 3rd ed. (1983), presents essays on Acadian history and culture in Louisiana. Rudolf Heberle, The Labor Force in Louisiana (1948), provides a benchmark from which to study the state’s industrial development. Roger W. Shugg, Origins of Class Struggle in Louisiana: A Social History of White Farmers and Laborers During Slavery and After, 1840–1875 (1939, reissued 1968), is a classic treatment of the political process from 1812 to the 1880s. James Bolner (ed.), Louisiana Politics: Festival in a Labyrinth (1982), highlights the structure and practice of Louisiana’s government. Mark T. Carleton, Perry H. Howard, and Joseph B. Parker (comps.), Readings in Louisiana Politics, 2nd ed. (1988), provides classic statements of social, economic, and political history with accounts of developments from colonial status onward. Perry H. Howard, Political Tendencies in Louisiana, rev. and expanded ed. (1971), is a historical examination of social structure and voting behaviour. Peyton McCrary, Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction: The Louisiana Experiment (1978), provides an excellent account of the state’s conflicts during the American Civil War. T. Harry Williams, Huey Long (1969, reissued 1996), is a fascinating and sympathetic biography of the politician.

Overviews of the state’s history can be found in Alcée Fortier, A History of Louisiana, 4 vol. (1904), a classic; Joe Gray Taylor, Louisiana: A History, rev. ed. (1984), an introduction; and Noel Gray, A Short History of Louisiana (1965), which gives attention to the role of the African - American community. Glenn R. Conrad (ed.), Readings in Louisiana History (1978), is comprehensive and includes maps and bibliographies. A helpful bibliography is Light Townsend Cummins and Glen Jeansonne (eds.), A Guide to the History of Louisiana (1982). Continuing scholarly research is presented in Louisiana History (quarterly). Adam Fairclough, Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972 (1995), provides much new material on the civil rights movement in Louisiana.